Trojans catching breath after hectic stretch

By Jason Avery

News-Times Staff

Parkers Chapel’s football team is presently taking a well-deserved break.

Over the last few weeks, the Trojans have been rather busy.

The Trojans conducted two weeks of spring practice going into Memorial Day, held a team scrimmage, then went to a team camp at Gurdon.

Last week, the Trojans went to a team camp at Lafayette County, and once that was over, the basketball players who also play football went to a basketball camp at Searcy.

The Trojans then competed at a 7-on-7 at Arkansas-Monticello with the basketball players rejoining the team for the event on Friday.

The Trojans played five games, culminating with a win over Watson Chapel in the tournament portion of the event.

“We had a long week,” said Parkers Chapel coach Jacob Midyett. “We went to that team camp on Tuesday and took a separate bus for our basketball kids to drive from there to Searcy to go to that team camp. They got back Thursday, so then we went Friday and played all day. We didn’t have a ton of guys and we had a couple guys already limping from basketball, so we actually ended the day after beating Watson Chapel.”

Midyett was pleased with what he saw at Monticello.

“We had a pretty good day,” Midyett said. “We thumped Warren’s JV and Drew Central pretty good. I think we lost to Hamburg and McGehee by a couple of scores. We beat a pretty good team (Watson Chapel), and a much bigger team. We’re out there with 12 kids on the sideline, and they had 40, so being the fifth game of the day, we were very pleased with the effort and execution.”

Parkers Chapel won the game in the final moments on a 20-yard pass from Caleb Jacobs to Preston Stivender.

“Almost a simple fade is really what it ended up being,” Midyett said. “We ran a little flood concept.

“A basketball kid that came out this year, Preston Stivender, beat his man and Caleb just threw it over the top and he went up and made a play. It was a big win for us.”

Although it may be only a win in 7-on-7 play, the manner in which the Trojans won the game is something Midyett hopes his team can take into the season.

“It is what it is,” Midyett said. “I’m sure the kids are excited about it. It’s always exciting to beat a bigger school and beat somebody that you’re not supposed to beat, but as a coach, 7-on-7 doesn’t really matter. I don’t know what kind of offense they run. I don’t know how much they throw the ball or run the ball. As far as them having more athletes and us finding a way to win late, that’s big for us.

“That’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve got to win games we’re not supposed to. We’ve got to be able to execute and finish games. We didn’t do that last year. We were able to hold some teams pretty close in the second half, but really kind of fell apart late. That’s a big first step in trying to get us used to doing that and being able to carry that into the season.”

Midyett said that while the Trojans weren’t able to do much during their two weeks of practice, it proved to be very beneficial, and it showed in their team camp at Gurdon, where the Trojans competed against Gurdon, Glen Rose, Bismarck and Lafayette County.

“A lot of good things, some not so good things, but I thought we competed well,” Midyett said of his team’s performance at Gurdon.

“We’re getting better. Obviously with us having that spring, we’re definitely a little more further along right now than we were at this time last year. That’s always a positive.”

As July creeps closer, Midyett said the Trojans will get back to work with more 7-on-7’s and team camps next month, including El Dorado’s 7-on-7 tournament.

“We’ve got two for sure, and we may pick up one or two more,” Midyett said.

“You get those eight days, and for me, I want to use them. As much good as you get from practicing and working out, you can’t simulate competition.

“There’s nothing better than going out and playing against somebody else, so we’re going to try and use our eight days that the AAA (Arkansas Activities Association) gives us.”

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